What's Your Animal Day?

  

Before I begin this article, perhaps it’s a good idea for me to go back about 15 years to explain what exactly an Animal Day is, or rather, was.

In a small but popular Shotokan Karate club in Coventry, the now legendary Geoff Thompson developed a method of training that progressed from full contact Karate sparring to pretty much no holds barred, all out fighting.

The rules? Well there weren’t very many if I’m totally honest. Anything and everything went, the only limits were the underlying knowledge that we all had to work the next day and so a certain level of control had to be maintained.

By control, I mean that biting was permissible and eye gouging was allowed so long as the owner of the eyeball retained it in his own head. The fights had no time limit and were only stopped when someone submitted through pain, exhaustion or if they were rendered unconscious with a knockout blow or a choke/strangle.

Occasionally the fights were also stopped if they went on too long, so a 30 minute time limit was in place, which in fact was reached on quite a few occasions.
All ranges were allowed, and all styles were accepted, with people travelling from all over the country to pit themselves against the Animal that was Animal Day. Please bear in mind that this was many years before the glorified Brad Pitt Fight Club film hit our big screens, but that hasn’t stopped people likening our training to it; I like to think they get mistaken by my movie star good looks. Then again......


  

And whilst it may sound like I’m somehow trying to glorify or “big up” the Animal Day sessions, you just have to take my word for it, and that of a few others, that they were truly far tougher than I can possibly put into words here.

I guess another point to highlight is that it wasn’t until very much later on that we gave these sessions the name of Animal Day. This was actually done for the benefit of a late night TV program (no not that sort of late night tv) who wanted to know what we called these sessions. Someone said that we looked as though we were fighting like animals and so the name was born.
Al-and-Jim-Animal-Day
In fact, by the time the name Animal Day was given to these sessions, we’d already begun to move away from this type of training as a club and a collection of trained individuals. For us, the original Karate “sparring” sessions were far harder and more brutal as they involved all of the Karateka in the club sparring in pairs, simultaneously; changing partners once the majority had ended their fights. We fought in our Dojo, which was a dusty cold hardwood floor that morphed itself into a roller skating ring when we had finished. It wasn’t until a few years later that we discovered Mats, and what a relief that was.
So trust me, these were tough sessions and more than worthy of the recognition they got at the time and still now.
We’d often use this form of sparring as a warm up whilst waiting for the real Karate class to start. It was not uncommon for us to start a class already bleeding and bruised from our “friendly” warm up spars.
In fact, it was only recently that I realised most people have old fashioned tricks for getting stains out of carpets or chewing gum out of hair. My one great skill is getting blood out of white clothing (my karate gi), something that I found myself having to do after most heavy sparring sessions. Fortunately not always my own I might add and something that came in handy later on for my years on the door, but that’s for another article perhaps.
Friends - The Geoff Thompson Originals

So, without labouring the point further, trust me when I say that these sessions were hard. They instilled massive fear, huge lorry sized dumps of adrenalin, often prolonged over the period of a week where Geoff had deliberately given us prior warning of a forthcoming “heavy” session.

And it’s been asked many times since, “why did we do it?”

My stock answer is always, “to find out who we are”

Not to find out if we could have a fight. No. Not to find out if we can take a punch, if our ground game is superior. Not to find out if punches work better than slaps or even if we know what it feels like to be knocked out. We did discover answers to all of those points and many more, however; my answer was and always will be – to find out who we are.

To find out what we’re made of and what makes us tick.

And we all did.

Understanding what you’re inner self is the most powerful thing you can learn. How you cope under times of extreme stress; stress that’s sometimes instant and sometimes drawn out. Understanding if you can overcome feelings of intense fear; if you can rationalise the frightening stories that will always be conjured up by your imaginative minds. To find out what your own limits are and discover that you can push those limits further and further with every uncomfortably battle fought and overcome.
Certainly, if you look back on the early videos (now DVD’s) of the Animal Days, you’ll probably spot that our ground games were pretty basic. Our techniques were perhaps not the most clinical and pretty; but one thing’s for sure. We could all have a fight. Win or lose we would all be jumping that one step forward when a volunteer was requested.
I’ve always said, it’s not winning the fight, it’s getting through the ropes in the first place that’s the biggest battle and Animal Days were our way of drawing a line between a comfortable safety and a petrifying uncertainty.

So What’s Your Animal Day?

I ask this because I feel it’s important to highlight one of the more overlooked facts about “Animal Days” and their often brutal and violent nature.

I now run a thriving Self Protection class back in my home town of Coventry, with my closest friend, training partner and trainer, Mick Tully. both Mick and myself frequently get requests from individuals who want to know if we still do Animal Days and if they can come along to experience one and train with the guys and gals in our club. Even recently on a seminar I taught I was asked by one of the students if I could organise an Animal Day for him as he wanted to come along and, in his own words, “See what it feels like to Get Hit”.

My answer is always, we don’t do them anymore. Or rather, we don’t do that kind of Animal Day anymore.

 Al-Single-Leg-Takedown

 


You see, this is where I think that life is a fantastic teacher, in that, if we really want to grow and learn about ourselves, Life puts Animal Days in front of us on a daily basis. Christ, some days I think Life is throwing one Animal Day after another at me, more than a chain smoker throws cigarettes in his mouth.
We all have access to our own Animal Days every day of the week, whenever we want them. We just have to have the courage to acknowledge what our own Animal Day really is and then cross that chalk line that we stay firmly stood behind, as if somehow it’s going to protect us like the Police Tape in a cordoned off area.
I know senior martial artists who will face absolutely anyone on the mat but can’t face sitting down and having a chat with their wife about their relationship problems. No number of physical Animal Days is going to help them grow and find out what they’re really made of. But an honest and frank discussion with their loved one would be a whole different battle and one that would bring massive return if only they could face their fear and realise this is their real demon to overcome.

For myself now, physical Animal Days would bring no further gain other than perhaps some physical development. The growth has already been exhausted for me. It holds no real fear and because of that, there is no real reward. I now have to seek new Animal Days, new ways of creating the pressure and the discomfort that will undoubtedly hold their own treasure rewards. The mere fact that I am taking the step to seek these new challenges is an Animal Day in itself because, once you set out on a path to find the unknown, you may not be pleased with what you subsequently discover.

So, am I saying that physical, old-school Animal Days are no longer required or a valid part of a self protection system? Absolutely not. They most certainly have their place if you are honestly searching to improve your physical fighting ability and knowledge. They are a very base way of delivering the fear and the pressures that will give fast and sizeable growth and reward.

What I am saying is that there is a time and a place for this type of training; and it’s important for the individual to be honest with themselves and be able to recognise when it no longer serves the purpose for which it was intended, whether that be a physical or metaphysical development.

Once you have recognised that fact, then it’s time to move on and search for new pressures, new challenges and new ways to pressure test yourself.
Believe me when I say, these Animal Days are everywhere, you won’t need to look very far.

For example, just lately we’ve all be faced with a financial Animal Day. Some are turning away from the challenge, others are facing into it and stepping across the line to meet it head on.

I can guarantee that everyone reading this article now (yes, that means both of you), will have something that if when asked, and answered honestly, you would say is the challenge you need to face. Your own Animal Day.
Al-Presenting
  

I faced one myself today. A challenge that could have seen me taking a massive step back in terms of my self development.

One that would have taken me back 10 years when I worked the doors and fighting was up there at the top of my response menu. The beauty is that I am able to see it for what it is, just another Animal Day. My ability to recognise it, to handle it, to rationalise it and to act in a measured and appropriate way, is a result of those many many hours battling and being battled on the wooden floor in the cold dusty Karate Dojo of Coventry. My reward for facing this challenge and taking the tough option is unknown at the moment, but I do know there will be a prize, just as there was for all those hours of blood and snot.

If only to know how to get claret out of white cotton, there will be some reward.

So I say this to you all. Seek out your Animal Day. It may be knuckling up with the monster in your club for some serious toe to toe action. It may be standing in front of your colleagues delivering the best presentation of your life. It may also be sitting down in front of your partner and having a heart to heart.
Whatever it is, you need to step over that line, climb through the ropes and face it down. That is an Animal Day.

My Animal Days are many. Some are ongoing battles that feel like they’re never going to end. Some are over in a flash with instant rewards.

What’s your Animal Day?

Stay Safe and Have Fun

Al x
 

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